It was later given the formal short title of the Succession to the Crown Act 1534.

The Act required all those asked to take the oath to recognise Anne Boleyn as King Henry VIII's lawful wife and their children legitimate heirs to the throne.

It demanded that persons swearing the oath renounce the power of any "foreign authority or potentate" and repudiate any oath previously made to such an authority.

This discrepancy did not go unnoticed by Sir Thomas More who claimed he had been sent to the Tower "for refusing of this oath not agreeable with the statute".

They refused to take the oath because it included the abjuration of the pope and claimed the marriage between King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon was annulled and it went against their Catholic beliefs.